The leadership of the Labour Party (LP) has disowned one of its House of Representatives members-elect, Hon. Amobi Ogah, over his comments commending President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. In a statement on Friday, Acting national publicity secretary of LP, Obiora Ifoh, said Ogah’s position on President Tinubu’s leadership is his personal opinion and not that of the party.
After a meeting with Tinubu on the leadership of the 10th National Assembly, Ogah had expressed delight, saying he never knew Tinubu was so intelligent. “Today is my best day. Today, I’m so happy that I’m an elected member seeing my president talking. In fact, I’ve never known that this man is so intelligent,” he said.
But reacting to his statement, the Labour Party spokesman said, “Though as a first-time and newly elected lawmaker, the member-elect made the utterance which is clearly within his rights as an individual as enshrined in the laws of the land, however, the party has a view quite different from what the honorable member was quoted to have said.
“As an individual, he does not have the mandate to speak for the party and therefore cannot claim to be standing on the platform of the LP to do the same, giving views that are diametrically opposed to what LP stands for.
“Labour Party is presently in the tribunal hoping to retrieve our mandate which was expressively given to our presidential candidate on February 25, and every testament emanating from the tribunal points to the fact that Labour Party clearly won the election but was robbed. We have remained resolute in our belief that justice will be done and so soon.”
According to him, while LP has nothing against the personality of President Tinubu, however, the party is challenging both the process and final outcome of the presidential election. He said, “We as a party insist that the route to His Excellency must be excellent, and anything other than that amounts to a mockery of democracy.
“We urge millions of our party members who are offended by Hon Ogah’s interview, which has since gone viral, to maintain their cool as the lawmaker has regretted his actions and has tendered unreserved apologies to the party.”